(upbeat music) >> Announcer: New York City. It's theCUBE. Covering CyberConnect 2017. Brought to you by Centrify, and the Institute For Critical Infrastructure Technology. >> Hey, welcome back everyone. This is theCUBE, live in New York City, in Manhattan. We're here at the Grand Hyatt Ballroom for CyberConnect 2017. Inaugural event presented by Centrify. I'm John Furrier, with my co-host Dave Vellante, both Co-Founders of SiliconANGLE Media. Our next guest is Parham Eftekhari, who's the Co-Founder and Senior Fellow of ICIT. Also part of the team and the lead around putting the content agenda together. These are the guys who put it all together. Really inaugural conference, great success. Turns out, you know we (laughs), we talked about it was going to be big, it was going to be huge. By the numbers, it's just a great beachhead, the right people showed up. Welcome to theCUBE, thanks for joining us. >> Yeah, thank you for having me, excited to be here, good to chat with you again. >> So, we, before the event started, just, you know, a couple months ago when we were talking about the event, we're like, this is, love the name, first event of its kind. Always wondering, you know, will people show up? Right, you know? >> That's right, first-time events, we've talked about this before, there are so many cyber security events out there, and so many organizations competing for a limited time and resources. So, I think to have a, an event like this be such a big success in the first time speaks to the quality of the content, and, you know, Centrify's role and ICIT's role in putting it together. >> I want to give you guys congratulations, to you and your partner, for running a really amazing company and event. You guys go big by thinking small, by being small, being relevant. Your model and how you do business earns trust, it's very community-driven. Same ethos as what we believe in. So, wanted to give you props for that. >> Parham: Thank you. >> It's not usual you see great execution thinking about your audience and constituents, so congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so, with that, you've got a lot of heavy hitters in your rolodex, you guys got a great community, big names. General's up there, you have big time SiSoS. >> Parham: Yeah. >> What's the vibe? I mean, you guys are dealing with this profile persona all the time. What's on the minds? I mean, obviously the General's banging his fist on the table, virtual table, or he's holding his coffee cup, telling war stories, he's basically saying, if we don't get our act together, industry and government... >> Yeah, well, I think what's happening today, and you know the business of the Institute, we're a research-driven organization, so as an organization that provides objective research, we have the fortunate position to be able to advise to some of these commercial and public sector leaders. And so, in that advisory, we have a really good sense on the pulse of the community. And we're able to hear directly from these individuals, we don't have to look at market research studies, we don't have to look at what some of these third-party groups are talking about. We're able to communicate directly, and we can actually see and feel their feedback to what we're discussing. >> There's no lag to your model, you have your fingers on the pulse. What is it telling you? Obviously, we heard the message here, there's some work to be done, there's some technical core fundamental infrastructure things, there's application-specific things, obviously the threats aren't stopping. >> Parham: That's right. >> What are the, what's-- >> If you look at the program that was built, it really does mirror the way that the Institute believes we need to approach solving these issues. And that comes with a layered security strategy. And so, oftentimes you'll go to these events, and we understand that there's organizations that are looking to make this into more of a marketing opportunity for them. So, unfortunately, the curriculum and content only touches one or two core competencies, which obviously really underscore what the sponsors do. What we've done here at CyberConnect, which is why Centrify's such a great partner, they understand that they may be one of the world's leading identity access management organizations, but they know for us to have a cyber security renaissance and actually make that quantum leap that the General and some of the executives that you were mentioning were discussing all day, we need to have a number of different technologies discussed, and have that education talk about things like the use of machine-learning based artificial intelligence. Talk about how technology can enable automation. Talk about identity access management. Talk about, like we just heard Terry Gravenstein, talk about the importance of building a culture of trust, right? Security has a human element to it, people's one of the biggest problems we have. So, I think this is one of the reasons why this event, to your point earlier, is such a big success only the first year out. >> Parham, we heard a lot today about sort of the partnership, really the imperative, of government and commercial enterprises working together. You do a lot of work in the government. And there seems to be, anyway our impression is, there's a heightened sense of security, for obvious reasons. And, board levels in the commercial side have really tuned in to security. But still, organizations seem to be struggling with what's the right regime. You know, it used to be just an IT problem, or a security team problem, and as you really pointed out many, many times at this event, it's everybody's problem. >> Parham: Yeah. >> So, what are you seeing in terms of, things that commercial enterprises can learn from government, particularly from the top, in the top down initiative. >> Yeah, I think one of the themes you've heard discussed several times today is, and Terry again just talked about us having a seat at the table, I think there's so much media discussion about cyber security. You know, all of our families, our moms, our grandparents, are understanding that cyber security is a major issue. We're even starting to get some more general consensus that cyber security is a national security imperative. And, so I think this is helpful. I think now we have to start to, as cyber security practitioners, we have to speak in the language that resonates with, so, if you're talking to a chief operating officer, and trying to educate them on the impact of ITOT convergence, then you have to speak in the terms that a COO is interested in, versus a CFO, versus your CIO, versus your Board of Directors. So I think language matters, vocabulary matters. And I think it's one of the things that we see, we see starting to percolate up in some of the conversations that we're having. >> Given that humans are the main problem, I mean we all have this assumption, we talk about it in theCUBE all the time, but oh my gosh, internet of things is going to create this huge space of people to attack, a huge attack vector. But if the humans aren't managing the devices, is there potentially an upside there, if that makes sense? >> Yeah, so, you know, I think it all goes back to, tomorrow morning, we'll hear from Dr. Ron Ross and David from Centrify. And they're going to be talking about security by design. In this, Dr. Ross actually put out a paper, 800-160, which really talks about the importance of building better systems, devices, products. So, I think that we are moving towards automation, we're moving towards machine learning, we already see it impacting a lot of our society, and even down to the, to your point, the IoT devices. We just put out a paper about cyborgs and the use of embedded devices in an actual, in humans, trans-humanism. This is all a, this, this ship has, the train has left the station, I guess you could say. I think what's important now is to not make the same mistakes we did the first go around, and pause and not put profits over security and privacy, and actually understand that, if we can't build it with security, certain security requirements there, then we can't get that functionality, or it may not cost the price point that we want it to cost, which may, you know, have it be more affordable for consumers. So I think we have to re-prioritize. >> US companies generally have not taken that pause and put security over profits. It's really been the reverse. And many would say, okay, but it's actually worked out pretty well for US companies, they dominate the technology industry. What do you say to those folks that say, well, profits are actually more important? >> Well, I think, I think it depends, when you say it worked out well, I think if you look at all those individuals that have been impacted by the breaches, I think that's where people are really starting to understand how it's impacting us, and going back to my comment about the national security side, this is no longer just about being able to steal your PII, and maybe doing some fraud in terms of identity theft and what not. When we're talking about meta-data and capitalistic dragnet surveillance, and now if you're looking at who is stealing and curating this information, it could be special interest groups, could be nation states, so now this becomes a much larger issue and a much larger challenge. >> So it's a ticking timebomb, is essentially what you're saying. And so that begs the next question: does really government have to get involved, to begin to impose its will, if you will, on commercial organizations? >> Yeah, I think what's going to happen, and actually we were talking about this at lunch with General Alexander earlier today, it's going to be a balance. You know, the government will be getting involved, they are getting involved, there's a lot of legislation being passed that truly is trying to make a bi-partisan push to address some of these issues. But I think, ultimately, that's going to be, as the General kind of said earlier, it's just going to be the government beating these, these folks virtually on the head until they start to do some self-governance and self-regulation. >> Parham, talk about your relationship with the General, vis-a-vis, this event. I see he had a great keynote, inspiring us, he moved a lot of people, talked about the general common defense versus civil liberties balancing privacy, as you mentioned. What more can you share about some of the things that he sees and feels strongly about, that you guys are seeing in your research in the Institute, because this is interesting, because you got a guy who says, "I'm an Army guy," right, who's now looking through the prism of the future, with past history at the NSA Command Center, Cyber Command Center. >> Yeah. >> He's got a pretty interesting view, and he sees both sides of the coin. >> Yeah. >> You guys are seeing that, people in the tech business are like deer in the headlights. We saw Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet, you know, like (groans). And then the center's trying to grock what Twitter does. >> Parham: Yeah. >> So, I mean, you have this generational gap, you also have historical analog to digital transformation going on. This is a societal impact, this is pretty huge. What does the General truly feel, what's his vision, what's his point of view these days? >> So, I'm not going to speak for the General, I wouldn't dare do that, but I will say that, if you listen to his comments on stage, one of the things he does talk about, and where our relationship is very strong, is the importance of public-private sector collaboration. The General actually received our pinnacle, I'm sorry, was named our pioneer last year at our gala which is actually happening in a couple of days in Washington, DC. And he really, if you listen to his message, he underscores the importance of collaboration, not just within a sector, not just within government, but cross-sector and between public-private sector, and between technology providers and government and legislative community. So, I think one of the things that I am comfortable saying is that, he would encourage more collaboration, and more information sharing, and more trust among the sectors to work together to solve these problems. >> How should people measure success in this business? >> That's a loaded question. I think, I think success needs to be, at this stage, incremental. I think that we need to be realistic in terms of how much quote success can we achieve overnight. We've, as we mentioned earlier, the ship has sailed, and so I think we need to do multiple things simultaneously. We, of course, do need to continue to implement technology and strategies that detect and respond to threats. But I personally would say that the true success is going to really be accomplished when we start to deploy strategies and re-prioritize so we're actually building more secure systems, more secure devices. I think that's going to be... Needs to go hand-in-hand, and we'll hear a lot about that tomorrow with Dr. Ross. >> Would that imply that, either, you know, the rate of growth of breaches starts to moderate, or the amount of data or loss, revenue dollars lost, begins to, you know, slow down its growth rate or-- >> Yeah, at some point that's absolutely going to be the goal, I think that-- >> Is that a reality though, I mean given that everything is growing so fast in our business? >> Oh, yeah, I'm an eternal optimist. I think absolutely, we'll get there. I can't tell you the timeframe, but I do know that venues like this, and the work that ICIT is doing, is really important to getting us to that point. Until we get folks in the media and on Capitol Hill and in federal agencies talking about these issues, so then it's not just the security folks who are focused on this, but a broader group. >> Yeah, and I think that's the opportunity, and as we wrap up day one here, education and content value is what we're seeing. You guys see that all the time, I know I'm preaching to the choir. But again, looking at mainstream media and some of the techniques that the Russians and other states have used to implement means and the election conversations, it's being gamified, we know that. So, the media picks up on it because there's identity politics going on. So, I think there needs to be a wake-up call, I mean, I think the educational process is critical. >> Yeah. >> What's next? >> And, and, and that's where, you know, we feel very fortunate to be in the position that we're in, because ICIT is a neutral, third-party, non-profit, and non-partisan research organization. So what we're doing is putting out content. We're not, we're not, the... I should say it this way, the information comes out-- >> You've no agenda in terms of how to capture? >> Yeah, exactly. >> It's all transparent. >> Our, our, our agenda is national security. Our agenda is improving the security of our nation's critical infrastructure sectors, improving resiliency. And providing trusted advisory to these various stakeholders. >> Well, getting the people here on theCUBE, and having you guys come on, and doing this great event really get, opens up the door for more voices to be heard. >> Parham: Absolutely. >> And we heard from your partner, had some great things to say. This has got to get out there, so the people, the press can report on it-- >> Parham: That's right. We'll turn on the cameras. >> Parham: Yeah. >> Dave, what's your take on the event here? Obviously, as an inaugural event, what's your analysis? >> Well, I mean, we touched on some big topics, right? I mean, the General, in particular, was talking about collaboration with the FBI, you know, Sony came in. >> John: The role of government. >> Privacy, ACLU, Jeffrey Stone. I think, you know, my big takeaway, as we were just discussing, was... And the General said that Sony, for example, he gave that example, can't do it alone. And I, we've been saying this for a while. And John, you predicted this, you said a while back that, that the government's processes, technologies, know-how, is going to seep into commercial businesses. As it has so often. I mean, you look at, you know, space launch, you know, radar, nuclear energy, the internet, et cetera. And I think security, cyber security, is such a big problem, only the government can help solve this problem. >> Well, the government's always been dealing with the moving train, and the corporations and the enterprise have traditionally been buying shrink-wrapped software loaded on a server that's evolved to buying more servers that have been pre-integrated with software. And buying silver bullet solutions, and then leave it alone until something breaks, and then fixes it. And I think, you know, when we were talking and looking at this event, my takeaway here is, the moving train is never going to stop, and the shifting of the game is going to be a cat-and-mouse, good versus bad, new technology versus reality. Open source certainly accelerated the role of the public domain. Treasure troves of information are being amassed, whether it's WikiLeaks or in the open source. This is a problem, and then there's no real, like, real creative solutions. I am not seeing anything. So, to me, this event takeaway is that, this is the first time a step has been taken to saying, whoa, holistic big picture. What is the architecture of a global society, where nation states can compete with no borders. >> Yeah. >> In a digital, virtual space, be effective, have freedom, and then respect for the individual. I mean, no one's ever had that conversation. >> Yeah, well we're excited to have it. We've gotten really great feedback from just some of the conversations that we're hearing in the hallway, as people are taking, learning actionable intelligence, where I can actually take this and instill it. I think a lot of people are actually being inspired, and that's something we need, especially in an industry where every day is about how, you know, cyber security folks don't get in the news when nothing happens. There's a commercial, I think it's an IBM commercial, right, where it's, my, my, nothing happened at work for my dad today, right? That never happens, it's always about what does go wrong, so I think we need to be inspired and motivate ourselves. >> Well, one of the things that we're excited about, as you know, we're community-model like you guys are. You look at some of the early indicators of how blockchain, and even though it's kind of crazy, you know, bubbly with the ICOs and cryptocurrency and overall blockchain, it all comes down to the common thread. We see an open source software over multiple generations, we're seeing it in blockchain, we're seeing it in security. Community matters. And I think the role of individuals and communities will be a big part of the change, as a new generation comes up. Really fundamental, so congratulations. >> Parham: Absolutely, thank you. >> Okay, Parham here's inside theCUBE for our wrap-up of day one of CyberConnect 2017. I'm John, with Dave Vellante. Thanks for watching. (synthesizer music)